Media Digital Art and Culture in Flanders Belgium
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MEDIA ART AND DIGITAL CULTURE IN FLANDERS 1 BELGIUM M E D I A A R T A N D D I G I TA L CULTURE IN FLANDERS, BELGIUM CONTENTS 0 5 A Guide Through the Labyrinth 5 1 Jerry Galle Joke Schauvliege 5 2 Pieter Geenen 5 3 Johan Grimonprez INTRODUCTION 5 4 Kurt d’Haeseleer 5 5 Tom Heene 0 9 Media Art in Flanders: 5 6 Nathalie Hunter A Short History 5 7 Aernoudt Jacobs Dirk De Wit 5 8 Wim Janssen 1 3 Media Art in Flanders? 5 9 LAb[au] Pieter Van Bogaert 1 0 8 Annemie Maes 2 1 Media Labs and the 6 0 Lawrence Malstaf Art of Mediating 6 1 Renzo Martens Liesbeth Huybrechts 6 2 Vincent Meessen 9 3 Ann Mertens ARTISTS & COLLECTIVES 6 3 Peter Missotten / De Filmfabriek 3 2 Herman Asselberghs 6 4 Hans Op de Beeck 3 3 Sven Augustijnen 6 5 Els Opsomer 3 4 Peter Beyls 6 6 Nicolas Provost 3 5 Maria Blondeel 6 7 Stefaan Quix 3 6 Boutique Vizique 6 8 Jasper Rigole 3 7 Cargo / Stefaan Decostere 9 3 Femke Snelting 3 8 Wim Catrysse 6 9 Ief Spincemaille 3 9 David Claerbout 7 0 Tale of Tales 4 0 Crew / Eric Joris 7 1 Koen Theys 4 1 Boris Debackere 7 2 Harald Thys & Jos De Gruyter 4 2 Brecht Debackere 7 3 Sarah Vanagt 4 3 Manon De Boer 7 4 Guy Van Belle 4 4 Anouk De Clercq 7 5 Anne-Mie Van Kerkhoven 4 5 Erki De Vries 9 3 Wendy Van Wynsberghe 4 6 Frederik De Wilde 7 6 Esther Venrooy 4 7 Deepblue 7 7 Walter Verdin 4 8 Alexandra Dementieva 7 8 Kris Verdonck 4 9 Alexis Destoop 7 9 Angelo Vermeulen 5 0 Nick Ervinck 8 0 Tim Vets 2 8 1 Els Viaene 1 1 6 Z33 8 2 Visual Kitchen 1 1 7 Zebrastraat 8 3 Bram Vreven 9 3 Peter Westenberg T R A I N I N G , E D U C A T I O N 8 4 Workspace Unlimited AND RESEARCH A R T O R G A N I S A T I O N S 1 2 0 Crosstalks, Brussels 1 2 1 EDM, Hasselt 8 7 Argos 1 2 2 HISK, Ghent 8 8 Artefact 1 2 3 HOWEST, Kortrijk 8 9 Auguste Orts 1 2 4 IBBT, Ghent 9 0 Beursschouwburg 1 2 5 IMEC, Leuven 9 1 Buda 1 2 6 IPEM, Ghent 9 2 Cimatics 1 2 7 KASK, Antwerp 9 3 Constant 1 2 8 KASK, Ghent 9 6 Contour 1 2 9 MAD-Faculty, Genk 9 7 Courtisane 1 3 0 SIC vzw, Brussels 9 8 De Werktank 1 3 1 Sint-Lucas, Antwerp 9 9 Extra City 1 3 2 Sint-Lucas, Ghent 1 0 0 FoAM 1 3 3 Transmedia, Brussels 1 0 1 Happy New Flanders Festival Kortrijk S U P P O R T A N D 1 0 2 iMAL INFORMATION 1 0 3 Mediaruimte / LAb[au] 1 0 4 Logos Foundation 1 3 6 Arts & Heritage 1 0 5 M HKA 1 3 7 BAM 1 0 6 Nadine 1 3 8 FLANDERS DC 1 0 7 Netwerk 1 3 9 IWT 1 0 8 Okno 1 4 0 Media Desk 1 1 0 Q-O2 1 4 1 Packed 1 1 1 SMAK 1 4 2 VAF 1 1 2 Stuk 1 1 3 Timelab 1 1 4 Transdigital 1 1 5 Vooruit 3 A G U I D E T H R O U G H T H E LABYRINTH Joke Schauvliege Flemish Minister for Environment, Nature & Culture 4 In retrospect, Flanders and Belgium have always had the disconcerting habit of questioning the medium and the relation between things and their images. Take, for example, Magritte’s astonishingly simple ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’, which pointed out the difference between the object and its representation. But this black pearl of surrealism also put a big question mark over the arts and the way we look at pieces of art and try to contextualize them. The twentieth century became a breeding ground for all kinds of media of which the internet only constituted the latest but definitely the most abundant offspring. The Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously stated: the medium is the message. But if that was the case, artists had to ask themselves: which medium should I pick? The eternal question between shape and content showed its stubborn face again. Although the question was not new, the (re)production and the dispersal of the artistic works in the media era were. They exploded in an unprecedented way. Flemish artists have applauded, welcomed, incorporated and maybe even caused a part of that productive explosion. “Media art and digital culture in Flanders” gives a generous, surprising and stimulating overview of our artists but also of the research, the organizations and the support the Flemish government offers. As minister of Culture I see the concept of digital culture becoming more and more of a tautology. Not only because art is more and more digitally conceptualized and created but also because all of our culture becomes more and more digitalized. For example, Walter Verdin used the details and intensity of ‘The Descent From The Cross’, the masterpiece by Rogier Van der Weyden, to render them into a sophisticated, videotaped choreography in ‘Sliding Time’. History and technology blend together in an incredible feat. The same could be said about Johan Grimonprez’s striking and influential documentary on hijackings, ‘Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y’. Others like Frederik De Wilde consciously seek the boundaries of arts, biotechnology and genetics, even – in contrast with sliding time – to challenge time itself. Blending, crossover, cooperation are key words in digital culture: important changes in comparison to other eras. Other aspects of the digital era are much more difficult to grasp. The questions and paradoxes surrounding the medium and the mediated, the symbol and the symbolized remain. I hope this publication – an encore of our cultural heritage – will prove a formidable guide through the labyrinth of the media era. 5 INTRODUCTION BAM Flemish Institute for Visual, Audiovisual and Media Art 6 Artists always apply the materials and techniques of their time. They experiment with them and question them. They constantly reinvent them and make them more transparent. This gives rise to new art forms and ways of presentation, which in their turn kindle the debate on art and its place in society. The advent of photographic techniques or electronic media, such as video and television, was no different. Digital techniques, the network environment and crossovers with research and other domains, such as education, creative economy and public space released art from its disciplinary frameworks and attention shifted more towards process and dialogue. New names were invented to find a niche for these new practices and artworks in the art scene, specialised curators were involved and new institutes, labs and festivals were set up. In the end these practices were implemented, without losing their specific nature. The ‘new’ always has historical predecessors. It is never merely a function of technique, but of broader social changes. And eventually a new generation of artists, curators and critics is growing up in a world that combines old and new media, without clearly distinguishing between them. Nevertheless it is still important to draw attention to leading edge artists and organisations. In this publication Media art and Digital Culture in Flanders – Belgium we present a selection of some 100 media artists and organizations who have already developed a practice of their own, have met with international response and are located in Flanders and Brussels. This selection of short bios and photos is situated through a concise historical outline, an essay by Pieter Van Bogaert on attention for media and DIY and an essay by Liesbeth Huybrechts on crossover and lab culture. 7 M E D I A A R T IN FLANDERS: A S H O R T HISTORY Dirk De Wit, BAM 8 In Flanders art and media have great history together. With the advent of electronic media artists seized the opportunity during the 1970s to apply audiovisual media, until that time only accessible to broadcasting networks and the film industry, themselves in a context of performance, happenings and conceptual art. The International Cultural Centre (ICC) in Antwerp is the first official contemporary art institution in Flanders. During the 70s and the early 80s the centre will play a pivotal role for national and international avant-garde artists, with a strong focus on conceptual art, video, performance and installations. We are reminded of such artists as Leo Copers, Lili Dujourie, Guillaume Bijl, Luc Deleu, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Danny Matthys, Filip Francis etc. During the 1980s a new generation of artists emerge out of various disciplines, such as visual art, film, music and theatre. They use sound and the electronic image as a plastic instrument to work with space, images and sound or as a means to produce their own –experimental- stories. In Wallonia the RTB ‘ateliers de production’ (‘Vidéographies’), prove essential for video works bordering with documentary and video is shown in the context of visual art by such curators as Laurent Busine and Laurent Jacob. In Flanders and Brussels the Audiovisuele Dienst (Audio-Visual Service) at the University of Louvain provides editing facilities to artists. The Nieuwe Workshop and later the Beursschouwburg in Brussels and Montevideo in Antwerp play a major part as a meeting place for artists and as a screening platform.